James Caan’s Death, The Godfather, Trouble and Unforgettable Rollerball Actor

James Caan’s Death, The Godfather, Trouble and Unforgettable Rollerball Actor

American comedian James Caan died on Wednesday, July 6 at the age of 82. He will remain for many viewers the Godfather Sonny Corleone and the author who was kidnapped and tortured by Kathy Bates in Misery.

“It is with great sadness that we announce Jim’s passing on the evening of July 6th. The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you respect their privacy during this difficult time. End of tweet.” Ending that message with the traditional “end of tweet” that James Caan uses on each of his tweets, the actor’s family announced his disappearance on July 7. The actor and director, who played roles in The Godfather, Trouble or Rollerball, among others, and was close to Scott Caan, has died at the age of 82.

Football, theater and cinema

After spending his youth in Queens, New York, James Caan joined Michigan State University At the age of sixteen, he studied economics and played American football. Then he turned to legal studies Hofstra UniversityBut the audition lets him in A neighborhood playhouse By Sanford Meissner. He subsequently won a scholarship to Win Handman, a well-known drama teacher, and landed the first four roles he auditioned for.

James Caan made his stage debut in 1961 round Then plays on Broadway Mandingo and Blood, sweat and Stanley Poole. After several appearances in TV series (Naked City, Incorruptible, etc.), she made her film debut in Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douce (1963) and two Howard Hawks feature films (The Line). Red 7000 (1965) and El Dorado (1967) with John Wayne, he found himself in the title role of Francis Ford Coppola’s People in the Rain (1969).

The unforgettable Sonny Corleone

After his brilliant performance as a trippanic player, he returns under Coppola godfather, where, as the brutal Sonny Corleone, he forms a striking contrast to the second son, the more intelligent, interpreted by Al Pacino. This family mural established him in Hollywood and earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination in 1972. Now a leading actor, he played a university professor prey to a gambling demon in Le Flambeur (1974) and answered Barbra Streisand in Herbert Ross’s musical comedy Merry Lady (1975).

In 1975, his background as a great athlete allowed James Caan to take on exceptionally physical roles: he performed his own stunts in a futuristic and violent way. roller ball by Norman Jewison and practices martial arts for Elite Killer, Sam Peckinpah’s spy movie purposes. The following year, he joined the prestigious actor A Bridge Too Far (1977) and directed by Claude Lelouch in Another Man, Another Chance (Ibid.), a mix of romance and West Set in 1870s United States, the two men collaborated again on Les Uns et les autres in 1981.

Michael Mann, Francis Ford Coppola, James Gray, Stephen King…

In 1980, James Caan made his first and only appearance in The Impossible Witness, which turned out to be a commercial failure. Despite all this, he continued his film career playing the ace thief in Michael Mann’s Le Solitaire (1981). After a five-year absence from the screen, he finds the director who brought him international exposure, Francis Ford Coppola, for Stone Gardens (1987), a military drama set in the Vietnam War. He went on to film Immediate Future Los Angeles 1991 (1988), in which he played a cop who works with an alien, then portrayed gangster Spaldon opposite Warren Beatty in the police comedy Dick Tracy (1990).

In the 90s, James Caan was more prolific: he, in turn, was the writer Paul Sheldon, who was imprisoned by Kathy Bates. trouble (1990), a film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, Big Star music hall Eddie Sparks in For the Boys (1991), Dennis Quaid’s murderous father in Flesh and Bone (1993) or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mentor and adversary in The Eraser (1996).

The broad-shouldered actor also displays remarkable charisma when it comes to playing the unsavory employer in The Yards (2000) or the underling in charge of the dirty work on the gun track (id. ). However, these rather serious roles did not prevent him from appearing in light-hearted films such as Blue-Eyed Mickey (1999), in which he is parodied as a mafia godfather, and Elf (2003), in which he takes on the role of an evil publisher. Father of a strange individual (Will Ferrell) raised among elves.

Two French collaborations

In 2003, James Caan left cinema and returned to his roots by filming on the small screen. In addition to appearing in numerous American television movies, he plays the character of Ed Delaney, the head of security at a large casino, in the TV series Las Vegas, and also shines in the second season of Magic City.

He returned to the big screen in 2008 with Steve Carell as the President of the United States in Max la Menace, as well as New York, I love you, integrating the cast, namely Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper or. Orlando Bloom again. The following year, the actor tried his hand again at animated film Storm of Meatballs, before returning to the stage in 2012 for Detachment, a “social film” directed by Tony Kaye.

At the end of his career, between several minor performances, James Caan He collaborated twice with French directors: Guillaume Canet for the thriller “Blood Ties” (2013) and Amanda Sters for the drama “Les Terres Saintes” (2019). He was to appear in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis project, which the American filmmaker had been pursuing for many years.

Source: allocine

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